1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a processing apparatus for processing sheet materials as products by performing operations such as collection, wrapping, and the like, while conveying the sheet materials. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and a system for controlling manufacture of a sheet material at a processing apparatus, or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Photosensitive materials include X-ray films for medical use, which are produced by forming a heat developing photosensitive material into sheets. Such X-ray film sheets are manufactured by cutting a whole film (raw film roll) to a predetermined width, and then to a predetermined length, so that the film sheets have a predetermined size.
Thereafter, a predetermined number of X-ray film sheets are collected and covered with a protective cardboard, and then is closely wrapped with a light-shielding moisture-proof wrapping material to form a wrapped body for shipment. Further, the wrapped body is put, for example, in a carton to prepare a package for shipment.
In an X-ray film processing process, a branch gate is provided on a conveyance line, and if a defective product is detected, the defective product is separated at the branch gate to be removed. During the X-ray film processing process, sampling is performed for checking quality of the X-ray film sheets. For this purpose, a sampling branch gate is also provided on the conveyance line, and a sample X-ray film sheet is removed by changing a conveyance path or a collection point using the branch gate.
That is, there are the branch gates provided on the conveyance line of the processing process of the X-ray film, and the X-ray film sheets are collected while being sorted by the branch gates.
In order to manufacture such X-ray film sheets, a manufacturing system has been proposed, in which respective operations including from setting a whole film in a processing process to cutting X-ray film sheets from the whole film and wrapping them, are automated to be controlled (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 9-124200).
In the above manufacturing system, a number of cuttings of sheet materials performed by a cutter, or the like, a number of sheet materials sorted into an ejection tray, a number of sheet materials for sampling, and a number of sheet materials collected for productization (packaging) are counted, and the counted values are respectively recorded for each lot or each whole film for manufacture control. Further, it is checked that if the number of cuts agrees with a sum of the number of products, the number of ejected sheets and the number of samples.
If the number of produced sheets and the number of collected sheets do not agree with each other and excess or deficiency is caused, a follow-up check is necessary. At this time, if the quantities are checked for each lot or each whole film, there is a problem that, even if excess or deficiency (disagreement) is detected, for example, between the number of produced sheets and the number of collected sheets, response to it is delayed. Specifically, if there is excess or deficiency in the resulted counts, a missing sheet material will be searched for with the help of any clues such as a failure in the equipment. If the numbers are counted for each lot or each whole film, the deficiency, for example, may be mixed up in a sampling tray or in an ejection tray, as well as in products packaged for shipment.
This causes delay in detection of the excess or deficiency, making the follow-up check complicated. Further, efficiency of various operations is lowered, such that production efficiency is lowered by stopping manufacture for the follow-up check.